Quiyauhteopan (Mdz8r)

Quiyauhteopan (Mdz8r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Quiyauhteopan has two main elements, three drops of rain (quiyahuitl) coming down from the sky, reaching to the top of a stepped pyramid-temple teopantli or (teopan). The teopantli is shown in profile with the main steps to the entrance on the viewer's left. It is left white or natural. The rain has three water droplets/beads (with small concentric circles) chased by streams of turquoise-blue water.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Frances Karttunen recognizes the possible dual reading for quiyahuitl (rain) or quiyahuac (at the entrance) in combination with temple (teopan). Berdan and Anawalt lean toward the reading of quiyahuac, which they translate as "outside."

The pyramid steps are articulated, starting at the top going almost straight down, and then shifting to descend at more of an angle. There is a special stone at the point of the shift. The tetelli does not have this articulation as it appears in the Codex Mendoza, but the teopan consistently does. See below and throughout the collection.

Gordon Whittaker (2021, 207) notes that the generally-accepted meaning of "Rain-Temple Precinct" is incorrect, but invites the reader to look closely to see what is missing. The -pan that appears to be a locative suffix for the toponym is actually part of the word teopan, temple. So, that is missing, which could lend support for Karttunen's suggestion for "At the Temple Entrance" or "Outside the Temple." In this reading, the rain plays a phonetic role.

Like the tecpan (governing palace), which typically lacks an absolutive, the teopantli was often just called teopan.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quiyauhteopan, pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Quiyauhteopan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Celestial Phenomena

Names (places)

Religion (Indigenous)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Water

Weather, Climate

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

rain, lluvia, temples, templos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

quiyahui(tl), heavy rain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quiyahuitl
quiahu(ac), at the entryway, outside the entrance, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quiahuac
teopantli, temple or church, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopantli
teopan, temple or church, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopan
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Rain Temple" or "Entrance Temple" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Outside the Temple" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 204)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Afuera del Templo," o "En la Entrada del Templo"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood (drawing from Frances Karttunen)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 8 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 26, of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).